Rise of the Guardians - Black Love
by Runaway Artist
Summary: After Jack becomes the Guardian of Fun and Pitch is sealed in his lair once again, he finds that his best friend, Valentine, needs help in gaining believers. Memories of past life is also recovered. Something goes wrong along the way though, and their friendship turns into something more, as fear once again covers the globe, but much stronger.
1. Intoduction to Cupid

Darkness.

That's the first thing I remember.

I was cold, it was dark, and I was scared. But then, I looked closer, and I saw the stars in the darkness of the sky, and my vision started to clear. I could feel myself being lifted from the ground, into the air, when I saw it.

The moon.  
It was so big, and so bright, and it seemed to have chased the darkness away… And when it did, I wasn't scared anymore...

After a second, I was placed back down gently onto the snowy earth below me. I inspected myself, realizing the clothes I was wearing, before I turned back to the moon. I started to walk on the uneven ground, losing a bit of my footing, and I grabbed a stick when my hand fell to the snow. It glowed a light pink when I touched it, and threw my hand away. Then, I grabbed it, curiosity getting the better of me, and I inspected it closely. It was curved, and had a string attached to it, to look like a bow.

Once I figured out my wings, I clumsily flew to a tiny settlement I spotted in the distance. Falling into the ground when I tried to land, I hoped no one had noticed my horrible landing. A grin took on my face, and I walked into the settlement, greeting those I passed. I then turned to an adult women, and was just about to ask where I was, when she walked through me. I gasped for air, and my eyes widened in surprise and shock. She walked through me! Then, others began to as well, as if only to add on the pain I felt and to tell me I was really invisible. I walked away, shaking my head in disbelief and confusion.

My name is Valery 'Cupid' Valentine. How do I know that? The moon told me. That was all he said to me though. That, though, was a long, long, time ago...

A pink haired girl flew around in the air white her small, pure white wings. A smile was set across her face, as the spirit of winter had just given her a good idea as to get just one person to see her, though, it would have to create some mischief. Snow was his thing, not hers, but it would be better than nothing. It was still into the early days of winter, but there was just enough snow on the ground. She landed in the town of Burgess, her home town, and looked around of a kid to spark interest with. It was a kid, age of what seemed to be 8, whose hair was short and a light brown. "Perfect." Valentine said to herself, grinning still, but had doubts. She trusted Jack though, so what harm could it bring? She knelt down, and grabbed some snow, and started packing it into a snowball, like the Winter spirit had taught her to make it perfect, and threw it at the kid. The little girl looked around, not knowing where it came from, since no one else was around. That got her attention. Valentine flew over, and decided to use what she had been working on for a while, flying a bit above the girl. A pink, glittering heart appeared in her hand, and it floated down in front of the girl, who started to giggle in amazement, reached out to touch it only to be surprised when it popped, and pink glitter like stuff fell to the ground. The girl reacted the opposite to what Valentine had expected. The girls eyes went wide and she started to back away, clearly scared and confused as to what that was. "Wait, I'm sorry!" Valentine said to reach out to the girl and comfort her, only to have her pale pink tinted hand go right through her…. The girl walked away, forgetting the events, but Valentine stayed there, floating down to the ground. "I.. I scared her.." She said, almost in a whisper, and put her face in her hands, not crying, but feeling like it.  
She had not noticed the wind picking up a bit behind her, and hearing the crunch of the snow come next to her. Jack Frost looked down at his best friend, clear to him that it had failed, and once again a child had gotten scared. He knelt down next to her, and put a hand on her shoulder. His body temperature was colder than hers, but not by much. The two both fell into winter, so it was only normal for them both to be cold. Valentine slowly turned to him, her ruby red eyes showing a pleading look in them, and he felt his heart ache a bit. There wasn't much he could do for her, and it hurt him to see his best friend hurt like this, for he too had been in her shoes not too long ago.  
"Come on," he said, smiling in an attempt to cheer her up, "Let's go see North, maybe he had an idea." Jack stood up, using his wooden staff to help, and held his hand out for Valentine to take, which she did, and the two flew off to the North Pole.

Nicholas St. North, widely known as Santa Claus, and to few, the Guardian of Wonder, whose title was not to be taken lightly. His workshop was full of this wonder, lights and sounds and excitement all around, it was easy to make ones mood brighten up as they saw the wonder he put into everything, but for Valentine at the moment, it was little to no help. The two made their way onto the globe room, where a huge globe stood with lights flickering on it and rotating slowly. This showed all the children who believed in the guardians. Valentine knew each of the guardians, but Jack, the Guardian on Fun, was the only one she knew best, and before he became a guardian as well.  
Making their way in, the two could tell things where being rushed more than normal, as Christmas was nearing and the yetis and North where getting ready for that night of setting out. It would be difficult to talk to him, and once inside, the two started to ask around for him. Of course, he would be in his office, the two though as they were told by a yeti where he was. The two made their way to the office, and knocked. The door opened, and a big man, with a long, white beard appear in the doorway, and smiled once her noticed who it was. "Jackson! Val! What brings you to workshop?" He asked in his rather deep and cheery voice, which had a thick, Russian accent. "Can we come in?" Jack asked, and Valentine nodded behind him a bit, noticeable still down about what happened. North gestured the two youngsters inside, and closed the door behind him.  
"Cookies?" North offered the two, which both turned down, and he nodded, setting the plate down. "Now, what is problem?" He asked, his face losing his smile. Valentine turned, not wanting to really speak, so Jack took the hint, and decided to speak for her. "Valentine has been alive for as long as I have, yet she hasn't gained any believes since then. On top of that, she insists everyone is scared of her instead. We were wondering, if you knew any way to get her to gain believers?" Jack leaned on his staff causally, and North stroked his beard a bit, trying to think. "This is hard, due to fact that Val has no big powers." North said, which just made Valentine look down some more, and Jack sighed. "Belief comes with she does best, which is guide people to love. Love is scary thing to mortals, so it is no easy task at this." After a moment, North shook his head slowly. "I am sorry, but I do not have idea." Jack nodded, and looked down as well. It was quiet for what seemed like forever, what North moved to Jack and Valentine, and put a large hand on both shoulders, making them look up at the much older spirit. "Val, do not worry, for you will gain believers someday. I must work, but feel free to stay and eat cookies." North smiled widely, and led them to the door. After saying goodbye, the two slowly walked in silence back to the globe room, where Valentine sat down on a table and sighed. Jack was trying to think of a way to cheer her up, not liking to see anyone sad, much less her. Tooth was always busy with collecting teeth, so seeing her was a no go. North was clearly busy, and Sandy was normally busy as well, only sometimes not being so caught up in his work spreading dreams around the globe. The only person left, was Bunnymund, and the two never got along very well. Also, Jack doubted he would make Valentine feel any better.

"Hey now!" He said, smirking a bit and leaned on his staff, Valentine looking up at him. "Come on, smile! This normally isn't like you. You're normally so laid back and cheerful!" He stood up and walked over to her, jumping up on the table she was on and crouched down, his staff helping him keep balance by staying on the floor, and he put a hand on her back. Valentine smirked a bit, shaking her head. "Sorry. It's just that… 300 years is a long time, and not one person has believed in me yet."

"Yeah, I know how you feel. You remember how torn I was after having Jamie and his friends walk through me after giving him a ride of his life on the sleigh."

Valentine nodded, remembering seeing his face. He looked so broken and sad, and he was distant for the rest of the evening. "Yeah, I know."

"I would try to get Jamie to believe in you, but with your powers…. It would just be hard." His voice sounded sad, as if he didn't really mean what he just said, but they both knew it was true.

Valentine looked up, and looked at the moon through the window in the globe room. It was huge in this part of the world. "I just wish he would say something." Her voice was just above a whisper, and Jack nodded. "300 years is a long time to be silent, but one day, like me, don't worry." After a moment of silence between the two, the girl sighed lightly. "Do you think I'll ever get my memories?" Jack looked at her, slight confusion in her face, but that soon turned to hope and determination. "Yes. You will. I'll let you know when the fairies get it from Pitch's lair. There are still quite a few down there, and the fairies are still retrieving them all." Valentine nodded, and she leaned on Jack, who almost jumped but soon relaxed.


	2. Snowballs and Fun Times

The two had stayed like that for a while, when Jack finally offered up heading out to find something fun to do, a mischievous grin on his face whenever he had an idea of fun. Valentine couldn't help but laughed at the smile she was used to, as well as feared what he had in mind. They both took off out the window, looking as if they were flying toward the moon from the view of someone watching from inside. The two spirits then flew around as fast as the winds would take them, and as far as they could without failing. Jack showed off some new tricks to Valentine, who laughed happily as she watched her best friend try to show off, and she even attempted a few herself, but it was harder due to Jack using his staff to add more effect. Valentine then had an idea, grinning with the idea. "Hey, Jack, want to free fall?" She said, and before he could respond, her white wings disappeared from her back, and started to fall, shouting in joy. Jack commanded the winds to stop, which made him free fall as well after her. They laughed as they fell through the air, trying to attempt to do tricks the best they could in this fall. Snow danced around the two gracefully, and the cold air felt refreshing on their already cold to the touch skin. Valentine, without knowing what she was doing, grabbed one of Jack's hands as they continued to fall, and for a moment they looked at each other, smiling widely. Heat suddenly came to both of their faces, and had to let go and look away. The girl opened up her wings again, which acted to a parachute, and started hovering in air a bit. The winter spirit realized how close they were to the ground as well, and commanded the winds to pick up again with a silent command, and they started leisurely flying in the air, still smiling and laughing from their brief enjoyment.

They flew to Burgess, which night was falling over and kids where retreating to their homes and families. Jack and Valentine decided to head to the pond, which Jack started to show off some moves he had learned recently, and Valentine laughed and cheered him on, on the side of the pond before ice met land.

"Jackson, you're cheating!" The pink haired girl said at one point, knowing he used the winds to help.

"Oh yeah? Then _you_ try it!" He grabbed her hands and started pulling her out into the ice, which was rather easy to do despite her trying to stay on the ground. It was hard for them to be serious, they were laughing so hard their sides hurt a bit from the pure fun this was. It was the young guardians' specialty after all. He also knew just how to make his best friend laugh, even when she was down like she was not too long ago.

Valentine, unlike Jack, had troubles trying to stand on the ice, and almost fell repeated amount of times, but managed to move around on the ice due to him giving her skating lessons before. He also had the wind to help him keep balance and stay upright, as well as help with all his little tricks he managed to do. The spirit of love moved a wrong way, and lost her footing, and started to fall to one side. Closing her eyes, she waited for the impact of the ice that never came, and opened her eyes wondering what had happened. Jack was there, smiling at her, who caught her before she hit the ice. Just like earlier, they stared at each other for a moment, before their faces turned red again, and Jack helped her catch her balance again. Valentine nervously tucked her hair behind her ear a bit, and watched as Jack went back to being the joyful show off he normally was.

"Stalking the poor kid now, are we?" A female voice sang a bit, as she was the only blaze in the dark underground cave, and that was not to be taken as a metaphor. Her hair and clothing had fire on its ridges, which breathed at a low and steady pace. Her face wore a slight smile to it, as she gracefully walked closer to the only other person inside the cave.

The tall, grey man looked into the nightmare sand in front of him, which showed two figures on a frozen lake, skating around on its surface. One was clearly a female with pink hair, and the other was a male, with pure white hair, and the two were laughing and having fun.

Fun.

In rage, the man swiped at the image, rage showing in all of his movements and features. The little mention of _fun_ set him in a rage. "And what do you want, Flame?" He said, turning towards the female who continued to him. She walked a globe that showed millions and millions of yellow sparking lights on it. Flame chuckled a bit, trying her best to look innocent. "Oh, come now, I am not freely allowed to visit who I want?" He disregarded her with a wave of his hand impatiently. "Unless you have news for me, then you are worthless."

Flame shook her head, sighing a bit. "You know I am neither good nor evil, so I cannot just tell you something without telling the other side something, but seeing how you are deemed weak in this state, then I will pity you and tell you something that might be of use." The male turned back to the girl, a faint smile on his face. "Humor me."

"You know who that pink haired girl is, right?" His smile faded, wondering what on earth she could be going on about. "Yes, Cupid. And what about the girl?" Flame took a moment to answer, wanting the suspense to fill in him a bit. "She is not just Cupid. In her past life, and this life, guess who her best friend is?" He thought for a while, and thought back to the image he was shown just recently.

"Frost?"

"Bingo."

"Interesting.. Both this life, and past."

"Indeed." The man brought back up the image of the two, who were clearly still skating on the ice without a clear care in the world. Only that moment seemed to matter to the two. Flame walked over so she could see it as well, smiling.

"And her fears, is of losing Jack to the grips of death, as well as never being able to be believed in." Flame chuckled, and the man turned to look at her as she walked away. "But, I'm sure the Boogieman, pure fear itself, would have known that already."

In a blaze of fire, the girl was gone, leaving no trace that she had just once been here. Pitch smiled and turned to the image the sand was still playing, thinking of a plan. "Now I know how to get to this pesky guardian, and get him out of the way, once and for all."

Flame looked up at the big moon, where night had just reached her own home town, and sighed, smiling a bit. "Don't look at me like that. I only just made things more interesting. Is that not what you wanted? Isn't it why you brought her back in the first place?"


	3. Fearlings

9 years has done the boys looks and even personality justice. His brown hair and grown darker with a few light streaks here and there, and has grown longer, but not by much. He also was much taller, and a bit muscular even. The only thing that did not change about him, however, was his belief in the supernatural, and the Guardians. In fact, the teenage male was making his way through the powdered snow to the pond him and the Guardian of Fun usually met up at. In front of him, was his younger sister, only 11 years old. Her once messy blond hair was now straight, her hair still covered her right eye though, and her body was starting to form curves.

She turned around to face her older brother, smiling widely. "Come on Jamie! Jack is probably already waiting!" Jamie laughed slightly, shaking his head at his rather energetic sister. "I'm coming Sophie." He said, and once again the girl ran off, giggling and laughing to herself.

Without warning, the girl was suddenly air born, not noticing the spirit of winter had snuck up behind her and grabbed under her arms. Sophie laughed in joy, which made Jack smile widely and laugh to himself as well. He carried her the rest of the way to the pond, which was not very far to begin with. Sophie turned around once on the ground, and threw her arms over Jack, smiling even more. "Jack! I'm so happy to see you!" She exclaimed in joy, and Jack had to basically pry her away from him in order to get her to let go of her embrace around the older spirit. "Hiya Soph. How have you and Jamie been?" He asked, ruffling her hair slightly. "I've been good, and I recently got honor roll in school!" Sophie felt proud of herself, as Jack praised the young girl for her hard work in classes.

"Hey, did you forget about me already?" Jamie chuckled, appearing in the ponds clearing. Sophie ran over to her brother and took her ice skates from him, wanting to show Jack some new moves she had learned on the smooth ice. Jack leaned on his staff, trying his best to look innocent, which the mortal boy had learned to look past and know he wasn't so innocent. "Forget you? How can I possibly do that?" Jamie bent down to help tie Sophie's skates, smiling and shaking his head lightly. The young girl was practically bouncing on the log she was sitting on, telling her brother to hurry up because she wanted to skate. Jamie had learned to be patient with her, and not snap at her whenever she got hyper or constantly annoyed him. After learning about Jack's death years ago, and how he saved his sister, he did not want to make the mistake of being a horrible older brother to his sister, and swore that day to Jack to take care of Sophie, as if he where he guardian as Jack was his sisters.

After lacing up her skates nice and tight, Jack took the girls hand, and the two went out onto the ice, trying to get the youth used to being on ice once again. She was shaky, of course, at first, but after a few minutes, she was gliding on the ice all by herself, with the careful watch of Jack and Jamie of course. Jamie laced up his own ice skates, and made his way out onto the ice, and lazily skated around. The ice of course would not crack, Jack had made sure of that not to happen. He always made sure the pond was nice and frozen every year, as to not let history repeat itself. This time, of course, the said person would not be brought back for a second chance like Jack had.

"How is Bunny, and Tooth, and the others?" Sophie asked Jack, and Jamie was naturally curious himself. "Oh, well I guess. I don't see them often though, except for maybe North." Jack explained to the two, and Sophie looked a bit heartbroken. "Has Bunny forgotten me?" She asked sadly, causing Jack to stop what he was doing, which was skate alongside Jamie, and just laugh. Sophie crossed her arms, looking angrily at the spirit. "And what is so funny?!" She practically shouted in anger. Jack shook his head, and made his way to Sophie, bending down so the two where eye level. He reached into his hoodie pocket, and took out a brightly coloured egg, which caused Sophie to gasp in amazement, hugging it once she took it out of Jack's hand. He laughed, and said with his voice rather low, "He hasn't forgotten Soph, he is just busy. Wait till Easter, I'm sure he'll leave you a nice surprise." She nodded happily, and Jack stood up, ruffling her hair again. Sophie continued skating, holding onto the decorated egg as if it were a precious jewel, and to the young girl, it was. It was a sign that their friendship was still there, even if they couldn't see each other.

Jack started to show off some moves, and Sophie attempted to do a few, with Jamie laughing in the background at the two acting so childish. Jack eventually got him to join in along, and somehow it all broke out into a snowball fight on the ice. On a tree overhead, Valentine sat there, looking down at the three. She had been there since Jack arrived, and he knew she was sitting there. It was as close to human contact as she could get, even if she wasn't seen. Just watching the three laughing and having fun brightened her mood a bit, and Valentine just sat there silently, as if she were to do anything it would disrupt this.

Valentine smiled to herself, and sighed, looking up at the sky. Jack noticed this, and looked at her with brief concern on his face, to which Jamie noticed and asked, "What's wrong Jack?" The white haired boy looked down at the two, and shook his head, weighing the chances with trying to get these two to believe in her right now. Jamie might be much too old to see her, it was rare someone at his age was still able to see the Guardians and believe in them. Sophie, on the other hand, might not just get it. She grew up knowing the Guardians and playing with them. It wasn't like with Jamie where he had to go spark belief in him. At this moment, Valentine had turned her attention back to them, and shook her head to which Jack could see. "Go, carry on. I'm fine." She said, smiling, and Jack sighed at her stubbornness.

The two siblings exchanged looks of concern for the spirit, but he just smiled and pelted Jamie in the face with a snowball, to which he started calling out that as cheating and foul play.

Back at the Pole, North couldn't help but turn his attention to the globe, to which some of the lights started to go out. This normally didn't concern him too much, but right now he couldn't help but feel dread fill up inside him.

"I see them too, North." A voice came from behind him, which made the man turn around startled. He sighed a breath of relief, and relaxed. Flame entered the room in a ball of fire, to which North did not notice till she said something. "I would not be concerned, but I feel dread." North explained to the girl, who nodded. She gracefully walked over next to North, and they both looked at the slowly rotating globe. "Is it Pitch?" North finally asked the girl, knowing quite well she had connections with the Boogyman.

"Well, I don't think it would be fair to say." She smirked slightly, not taking her gaze off the globe. "But, if you must know, it is just his Fearlings and not him. He is still trapped in his little prison, the Fearlings just get hungry every now and then, you know?" Flame took a cookie from the plate the elves had carried in the room for North and his unexpected guest, and the cookie burnt in her hand slightly. It did not bother her much, in fact, she loved burned cookies more than anything.

North glared at her, his eyes showing warning and danger, unlike when they normally look cheerful and full of wonder. "If Pitch hurts Jackson or Val, he answers to me." The burning girl chuckled lightly, as the crumbs on her hands burned away and left no mess. "I don't know his plans. He is quite the hermit at times, dear Guardian. I may have contact with him, but he does not trust me, similar to you and the others." North flinched slightly at this, unaware that she knew so much, even though she barely showed her face unless it was summer in a certain part of the globe.

"I've felt like I've given you too much information." She smiled, looking at North briefly, before turning into a ball of flame and disappearing. "Information? Girl hardly said anything!" North thought to himself angrily, but his attention was soon taken away from the urgent call of one of the yetis who stormed into the Globe room, who managed to say something about a malfunctioned toy. North groaned, and turned, shouting, "Yes! Yes! Be right there!" to his yetis. The feeling of dread did not loosen up, even after Flame's report that it was only the Fearlings. But, then again, Pitch controlled the Fearlings, so their amount in activity was strange. The Guardian of Wonder was far too busy to deal with it at the moment, and hoped another Guardian would soon realize this, and take action to see what was going on.

Valentine, being one of the few spirits that existed on the Earth to have never seen a Fearling, did not know what it was when she first spotted one while in the tree, listening to the 3 still having fun. It moved in the shadows, watching them on the iced pond. Suddenly, it stomped a hoof, and she watched as a dark shadow slithered on the ground, onto the smooth ice, and stop right underneath Sophie, none of them noticing it except for the invisible girl.

There was a loud crack that came underneath Sophie, and everyone froze, looking around to see where it came from. "Ice under Sophie!" Valentine quickly yelled down to Jack in a short sentence, who instantly saw what she was talking about. The ice under the girl had begun to crack, and the icy water from underneath was already being shown. The girl followed Jack's gaze, and her eyes widened in fear as she saw the cracked ice. "Don't move Soph!" Jamie yelled to her, and she did as told, not moving.

"Jamie, get off the ice, now." Jack said calmly, and Jamie did as told, reaching the shore and stumbling down onto his knees in his haste. The white haired spirit took to the air, and went behind Sophie. "Now, stay still. Trust me, you'll be okay. I promise." He said, and carefully put his arms under hers. Carefully, he lifted her off the ice, and took her over to Jamie, who instantly hugged her as soon as she reached the ground. "Are you okay Soph?" Jamie asked her, clearly shaking a bit from the sudden fright, as well as Sophie shaking just as much. The two trusted Jack with their lives, and knew it wasn't him who made the ice crack.

Valentine flew down from her branch, and pointed to the Fearling for Jack, who shot a lightning bolt of ice at it before it could run. The two spirits went over to investigate, Jack making sure to tell the two young mortals to stay on the ground and away from the pond till he got back. Valentine looked at the figure trapped in the ice with a confused look, bending down to examine it more.

"What is it?" She asked, looking up at Jack, who shook his head in disbelief. "It's walking out in the sunlight.." He mumbled to himself, and it only made the pink haired girl to look at him with even more of a confused look on her face. "Jack, what is it?"

He looked at her, his eyes either showing concern or worry or maybe even fear, Valentine could not tell, but she could tell that it wasn't good.

"It's a Fearling, something that works… Works for Pitch. Come on, we need to go tell the others. I think Pitch is back.."


	4. Not So Innocent

Northern Lights where seen across the sky around the world. Well, only to the immortals of the world who could see it. The two had been heading for the North Pole when they started up, and the two gave each other a questioning glance. Maybe North already knew about the Fearlings.

Before leaving the pond, Jack had made sure Jamie and Sophie where alright, and even escorted them back home. "Jack!" Jamie had said, before the spirit and the invisible girl flew off. "Yeah?"

"I need advice when you get back." He said, his face turning a light shade of pink, which made Jack laugh a bit.

"With what?"

"I think Cupid hit me with an arrow... I kind of like Pippa more than a friend now.." Jamie explained, looking down at the ground.

Jack turned to face Valentine, who just stared wide eyed a bit. Jack broke down laughing at the irony that sentence had just caused without the poor mortal boy realizing it. There was quite an argument, before Jack finally agreed, made a small remark about how even Cupid was surprised to this sudden news, which got the boy confused, and the two flew off, leaving him to wonder just what on earth the spirit of winter was talking about.

They landed inside the globe room, and Valentine waved to Jack as she had to go wait outside the room for the meeting to be over. Non-Guardians were not allowed in the Globe Room at the time of the meeting, and had to wait outside or in another room while waiting. Valentine didn't protest much, she tended to help out the yetis or keep the elves occupied with something or other.

One by one, the Guardians began to enter, the last of them being the Sandman. "What's going on?" Tooth asked in between orders for her other fairies to carry back to the Tooth Palace, mainly being weather conditions or where to find a tooth. "Yeah mate, what's the matte'?" A tall, slim looking rabbit asked, with his rich Australian accent.

North looked very bad and weak for some reason, but besides Jack and Bunny, no one else noticed. The two exchanged questioning looks, and the abnormal silence made Tooth and Sandy turn to see what was going on. It took a few moments, before North let out a heavy sigh, and proceeded to say, "The Wonder in world… Is fading."

Unknowing to what was going on inside the Globe Room, Valentine kept herself occupied by playing with the elves this time around, since the yetis shooed her away not wanting anything to happen to the toys. It wasn't like she created mayhem in the shop, they just did not want to take any chances. Some didn't even let other yetis help out.

Valentine respected the yetis space and played with the elves, to keep them out of trouble and away from the yetis who were working. They were quite cute in her eyes, unlike the other spirits who found them bothersome, and "always under boot."

Two swirls of nightmare sand showed the two friends, despite them being separated and doing different things. The sand did not produce sound much to the Boogieman's dismay, but wasn't bothered by it too much. It was their location that was more important to him. The image of Jack Frost disappeared, and only the image of Valentine played in the swirl of sand now, clearly laughing and having fun with the elves that scattered the North Pole.

A smile formed on Pitch's lips, as he watched the image with his hands behind his back. "Perfect." He hissed out almost, laughing a bit. "They are making this almost too easy." Flame looked at him, smiling and shaking her head. "They are very stupid, if you have not noticed." He turned to the girl, walking away from the image. "Is it ready yet?" Flame turned back to sand she was putting light into, and nodded, the light fading little by little within the black sand, till it started to gain a form.

"Yes. This is perfect." Pitch hissed once again, his smile becoming more menacing. The sand took a form of a young girl, her skin a pale grey, her hair up in two long pigtails, and wore just a simple black dress that reached her knees. The combined powers of the two had made a seemingly ordinary child, but it was nothing but a puppet for Pitch to use, able to see through her eyes, hear her thoughts and tell her what to say and do.

The young girl made of sand stood, and opened her eyes, which where the purest black and emotionless. She said nothing. "Well, we must give her a name." Flame replied, looking at the sand-girl.

"A name? What for?" Pitch looked at the burning girl with a look of confusion and amusement.

"Well, if she is to do this, then she must have a name in order for them to fall for her more."

The man nodded, and gestured to Flame. "Why not you name her then?"

Flame thought for a second, and smiled. "Hence forth, her name is Lina. It means pure, light, the Guardians will fall for it I'm sure."

Pitch frowned, and rolled his eyes a bit. "Why something like that? What does it matter what it means?"

"A name can give a lot away about the person. Like you, Pitch Black. The name beings fear. Flame, it instinctively means fire or embers. Must I give more examples?"

"No, that won't be necessary. So, Lina it is then."

The spirit of love had flown back to the pond, forgetting something there. The Guardians meetings, even unexpected ones like these, took quite a few hours, so Valentine had time to kill before her and Jack could go do something. What she had forgotten was her quiver of her love arrows, which she had left hanging on a tree branch. It was uncomfortable to wear while trying to sit down, leaning on the trunk of the tree, so she took it off.

Valentine went over to it, and picked it up, slinging it over her shoulder under her cape. The way it was made, made it tilted so it stuck out to the side from under her cape so she could grab her arrows easily.

She saw a shadow moving towards the pond from the woods, but didn't move. It was possibly a kid coming to ice skate on the pond, so Valentine didn't worry too much. A girl, with rather pale skin, and long, black hair in two twin pigtails came out and stepped onto the ice. For some unknown reason, Valentine watched, not moving.

The spirit flew down to the little girl, who looked around with wonder. Valentine noticed that this girl, she had no shoes or any protection from the weather on, just wearing a simple black dress, and her eyes where so grey, but they shined with the brightest curiosity.

"Little girl, why are you not wearing any winter clothing?" Valentine asked, mainly talking to herself since she knew the girl could not hear her, but, she did.

The girl turned to Valentine, and smiled. "Pretty." She simply said, and Valentine froze.

"She... She can _see_ me?" Valentine said to herself. "A-and _hear_ me?!"

The girl nodded, confirming what she had just said. The girl pointed at the shocked spirit, and said, "Cupid! Pretty!" She smiled brightly, but yet, Valentine had a hint of doubt in her.

"If she can see me," Valentine thought to herself, "then why do I not feel any power? Isn't that what happens?"

Valentine shook her head slightly, and pulled herself together. She then knelt down next to the girl, who had put her arm down by this time, and smiled gently.

"Little girl, why aren't you wearing proper winter clothing?"

"No time."

"No time to put some on? Won't your parents be worried?"

The girl shrugged. "I dunno my mommy and daddy."

"So, you are an orphan?"

Once again, the girl shrugged.

Valentine sighed, and un-clipped her cape, and draped it over the girl like a blanket. "You are lucky that it is still early winter." The girl hugged the light teal cape to herself, but showed no signs of being cold. "Odd." Valentine thought to herself.

"Where is your home?"

She shrugged.

"Do you have an adult I can take you back to?"

She shrugged.

Valentine sighed in frustration, but remained calm. She couldn't do anything, but maybe one of the Guardians knew who she was, and could take her back. The Guardians knew almost every child on the Earth, or had seen them at least. "Would you like to come meet Santa, the Easter Bunny, and Tooth Fairy with me?"

The girls eyes brightened up, and she smiled widened. "Yes!" She said happily, and Valentine couldn't help but smile more at the girl's excitement. "What is your name?" Valentine asked the girl.

"Lina!" She exclaimed happily, and Valentine nodded. She carefully picked up Lina, and held the girl gently but tightly. "Okay Lina, hold on tight." Lina tightened her grip on Valentine and her clothing, and small pure white wings came from her back once more. The little girl gasped in amazement, which made Valentine laugh a bit, and carefully took up into the skies, holding onto Lina tightly.

She showed no fear in the flight though, and also managed to hang onto Valentine's cape as well, much to her relief.

At the pole, Valentine landed in front of the doors of the workshop, and knocked hard to be heard over the noise from inside. Within a few seconds, the doors opened up by a yeti, and let her and Lina in, but not before pointing to Lina, and said something in his yeti language which Valentine had learned from North and Jack. "This is Lina. She is lost and I need the Guardians help to find out where she lives."

Lina giggled and reached up to the yeti, petting it gently. "Fuzzy." She said through giggles, and the yeti let the two in.

To Valentine's dismay, the meeting was still going on in the Globe Room, so she decided to take Lina over to where the elves had been waiting for Valentine to return, and played with them along with Lina, who chased them about and kept exclaiming them being cute.

An odd feeling did not leave Valentine though, as this girl seemed rather strange. In all her immortal life had she never seen a mortal with such black hair, or such grey eyes. It was indeed even more odd, was that the girl can see her, yet Valentine felt no power gained from the belief. Jack had told her that is what happened when you gained a believer, that you just felt it in you. But Valentine felt nothing. She also seemed to have not felt any coldness while outside in the winter, even nearing the North Pole, where at this time of the year, it was very cold.

"I best keep an eye on her.." Valentine thought to herself, watching the girl and the elves run around having fun. Jack would get jealous if he saw how much fun the girl and the elves where having right now and not being included.

**(Sorry guys for the constant change in how the text is formatted. I'm experimenting with it in a way in order to make it so it's not so scrunched up together, but doesn't have too many spaces.)**


	5. Freeing Fear

Inside the Globe room, after hearing North tell them that the Wonder in the world was fading rapidly, everyone looked surprised. "North, are… Are you sure?" Tooth asked hesitantly, but of course, the way he looked proved it all. The Russian man nodded, and everyone flinched a bit. "But, Valentine and I just visited you recently, and you looked fine." Jack explained, trying to figure out what he meant.

"I know, Jackson. Happened just today. I was working, and suddenly I felt weak, and realized Wonder had disappeared." The room was dead silent for the longest time ever it seemed, when Jack suddenly sighed, and said, "I think this has to do with Pitch."

Bunny let out a halfhearted laugh, and shook his head. "Pitch is gone mate." Jack shook his head, looking up now at Bunny, and back to North. "No. I was at the pond with Jamie and Sophie, when the ice under Sophie started to crack a-"

"Whoa, mate! Is the little ankle bitter alright?!" Bunny asked worriedly, and Jack nodded, which made the pooka sigh in relief, and Jack continued on, telling the other Guardians the encounter him and Valentine had with the Fearling. Somehow, all of the Guardians believed him, even if they didn't want to. The proof was North at the moment.

"But if Pitch is back and attacking, wouldn't we all be effected and not just North?" Tooth pointed out, and they all thought for a moment. Finally, Sandy waved his hand franticly, getting everyone's attention, and in pictures used from his dream sand above his head, told them what he thought through the pictures.

"A blockage? But how?" Bunny asked, crossing his arms and sighing seemingly annoyed. "You can't jus' block one thing…. Can you?" Everyone seemed to be thinking of how Pitch was able to pull this off. Wonder was blocked off, making North powerless, yet everything else was fine. Hope, Memories, Dreams and Fun were safe.

Bunny shook his head, and sighed. "You know what this means…" He said, his voice on edge, and everyone nodded. "Pitch has gained more power." Tooth said, and the Guardians all exchanged looks. Sandy turned to look at the little dots on the globe. It was true there was still belief, but there was something that was holding it back from giving North the power he needed. The little yellow man then turned to look at the moon out the hole in the roof, looking at it questioningly.

Jack went over to North, looking at him worried. "Will you be alright?" North nodded a bit and sighed. "Just not myself at moment." He smiled a bit, trying to make things seem like they were okay. "What you s'ppose we do then mate?" North shrugged and shook his head, but Jack jumped in, and said, "Since there are Fearlings out, maybe if we get rid of some of them, Wonder will be able to come back."

Everyone in the room was clearly thinking about this, but eventually nodded, agreeing with the idea. "North, you stay here and watch the yetis and just relax. We will all go take care of the Fearlings!" Tooth said optimistically, her violet eyes gleaming happily. Sandy smiled, and seemed to clap a bit without making noise. Bunny chuckled, saying how he wouldn't mind kicking some Fearlings back in their place. Jack turned back to North, smiling widely, and North smiled back at them all, feeling very grateful.

The white haired spirit left the room for a bit into the workshop, and asked the yetis were Valentine was, some replying with not knowing when one finally pointed to a nearby door, and entered in to see Valentine sitting on her legs on the floor, surrounded by the elves and smiling widely. She hadn't noticed Jack entering, and he just stood at the door for a bit, watching her laugh and talk to the elves.

That's when a little girl ran over to Valentine, hugging an elf in her arms and smiling. Jack broke out of his daze, and looked at the little girl, who had the blackest hair he'd ever seen. The girl then looked over at him, and pointed at him with her index finger and exclaimed, "Jack Frost!" while smiling widely. Valentine looked over, and seemed embarrassed for not noticing him. "Oh! Jack!" Valentine stood up and quickly walked over to him, laughing nervously. "Uh, sorry for bringing her here. Her name is Lina and I found her by the pond." The two turned to look at the little girl, still occupied with the elves, when Valentine added, "She doesn't know where she is from, so I'd figured you and the Guardians could help."

Jack nodded in understanding, and smiled once again, chuckling slightly. "Well, that'll have to wait, we need to go out." She looked at him, confused. "What? What do you mean?"

"Well, I can't explain it right now, but we have to go fight some Fearlings for a bit, so dealing with her will have to wait. Come on, I'll meet you back in the Globe Room with the others." Jack walked off back to the room, and Valentine went over to where she was sitting and grabbed her bow which she had placed on the floor. Probably wasn't the brightest idea, because who knew what would happen to her if it broke.

Lina grabbed her shirt, and looked at her with a confused look. "Where Cupid and Jack going?" She asked, and Valentine turned to her, thinking of a reply. "Uh, Jack and I need to go take care of something important, so I'll be back in a bit, okay?" The little girl nodded, and Valentine added, "You can stay in here and play with the elves, and maybe even Santa will come in here to play." Lina smiled brightly, and nodded, but didn't let go.

"Have you ever thought about joining fear?" Valentine flinched at the little girls sudden words, and noticed her eyes start to act weird. "W-what?" She asked, unsure of how to react. "Do you think Jack really likes you?"

She couldn't reply or move. The two questions swirled in her mind. Of course Jack liked her! …. Right? They were best friends after all, right? Valentine finally snapped out of it, standing up. Lina had returned to playing with the elves, and Valentine shook her head before leaving and closing the door behind her. Where had all that come from that little girl?

Oh well, they needed to worry about something else right now, and she hurried over to the Globe Room, where everyone else was waiting. "Sorry." She apologized, and Jack just told her not to worry about it. Tooth, Jack and Valentine flew out the window, and Sandy created a swirl of sand for both him and Bunny to stand on, knowing Bunny hated the cold snow that was down below them.

"Good luck, be careful!" North called after them, Tooth calling back, "We will!" before they took off into the sky, Jack cheering in joy as he glided on the wind. Valentine followed close behind him, the two in the lead. "Where are we going first?" Bunny asked them all, and they finally agreed to check out Burgess first, since that is where Jack and Valentine had seen the first Fearling.

It was nighttime at Burgess, which was perfect. The Fearlings enjoyed the dark more than the light anyways, and preferred the shadows. The group checked every corner and ally, even some buildings, only finding a few in this town. "Aren't there supposed to be more?" Valentine asked, unsure since this was her first time ever encounting and fighting these things, and so far had failed to land a hit on any of them.

"Maybe we should spit up and cover more ground." Tooth chirped in, looking around just in case there were more around. Everyone agreed, but decided not to split up alone. Instead, they formed groups and agreed to meet at the pond if anything happened. Tooth and Sandy went in a group, and Jack, Bunny and Valentine went in another. The waved goodbye, and went separate ways.

An hour into hunting down the Fearlings, having only gotten a few, Jack and Bunny agreed to go check on Jamie and Sophie. Valentine didn't protest, and promised to keep it secret from Tooth and Sandy. The three made their way to the house, and Jack looked in the window to Jamie's bedroom, happy that he was still awake. He knocked on it with his staff, and Jamie looked up from the book he was reading and smiled, hurrying over to the window and opening it.

"Jack! Bunny!" He said happily, and the two went in, along with Valentine who of course was unseen by Jamie. "Hey, Jamie, I need to ask you and Sophie something important, think you can go and get her?" Jack asked, and the mortal nodded, leaving his room quietly as to not wake up his parents. Valentine looked around the young man's room, and laughed a bit. "Nice room."

"Give the guy a break, he loves adventure and myths!" Jack said, chuckling a bit, and Bunny rolled his eyes but couldn't help but laugh a bit as well. Valentine walked over to the table in his room and sat on it, to keep out of the way even though she was unseen. The feeling Spirits got when they were walked though was very unpleasant, and tried avoiding it as much as possible.

Just a few moments after he left, Jamie returned with a rather sleepy Sophie, but instantly became awake when she saw Bunnymund. "Bunny!" She exclaimed happily but low enough to not be heard by her parents if they were to wake up, and ran over to him, hugging him tightly. He returned the hug, and chuckled a bit. "Nice to see ya again, ya little ankle bitter." Bunny and Sophie both sat down on Jamie's bed, while Jack remained standing and Jamie leaned on the wall. "So, what's so important?" He asked the immortals, and Sophie looked at them, wondering as well what was going on.

Jack sighed, and ran his hands through his hair, wondering how he could explain this. "Well, North lost his powers…" He said, and Jamie flinched, looking at him with disbelief. "Wonder? What happened to it, I know it's not gone!" Jack nodded. "Exactly, it's not, but there is something blocking all the Wonder in the world, and we think…." He turned to Bunny, who sighed, and finished the sentence. "We think it migh' be Pitch Black."

Everything was silent for a while, when Sophie spoke up. "I thought he was gone though?" "That's what we thought too the first time, but we learned from our mistake. He plans on attacking again, and is somehow blocking Wonder." Bunny explained to Sophie, while Jack turned to Jamie, the two equally physically aged teens looking serious, one more confused than the other. "Jamie, have you noticed anything strange lately? Like, anything that has to do with the Fearlings?"

The brunette haired boy shook his head no, and Jack sighed in a bit of relief. "Let me know if you notice anything, alright?" Jamie nodded, but then instantly added, "But how?" "Just call my name and the wind will tell me that you need me, same with Sophie."

They talked, and Valentine watched, since that was all she could do. She looked towards the window, when a shadow quickly went past it. "Jack, I'll be right back." The girl said, and left before he could protest, taking flight out the window, and following were the shadow went cautiously. Once again, she saw it, and took after it, grabbing an arrow from the quiver behind her back, in case she needed to fight. It lead her a little ways away from the pond in the woods, where she saw some disturbed earth. The shadow took down on the earth, and Valentine hesitated.

Finally, she kicked at it hard, and only a bit of the top layer of soil fell down a hole, which looked very deep. "What's this?" She said to herself, looking down it. It seemed to have gone down forever, when she heard an echo come from inside. "That voice…. Why does it sound so familiar?" Valentine said, wondering why she heard a male voice. Carefully, she jumped into the hole and down to what seemed to be near the center of the earth.

It was a dark and cold and creepy place, with cages hanging from the ceiling and it looked worn from water. Valentine looked around, wondering where she was and walked around a bit.

"Well, took you long enough." A voice came from behind her, and she whipped around quickly, to see a very tall male standing a ways away from her, with black hair, very play grey skin and a coat that reminded her of a shadow. "Who are you?" She asked the male, who laughed a bit. "My name is Pitch Black, and I must give you my deepest gratitude my dear." He said, walking over to her. "P-Pitch?" She said, worry and fear now showing in her eyes.

"Relax my dear, I won't hurt you in any way. I just want to thank you."

"For what?

"For setting me free of course. With that blasted soil in the way of that hole, I couldn't get out, but you got rid of it for me."

"Y-your welcome then..?" Valentine was on edge, but didn't know what to do. Pitch chuckled a bit, and there was silence for a moment. "You don't need to fear me, Cupid. I won't harm you."

"F-fear? Fear you?" She tried her best to seem brave, but Pitch saw through the act. "I know everyone's fears. Yours and even Frost's."

"You don't know anything about me!"

"Oh really? You fear, is that Frost will abandon you, and you will be all alone. With no friends, and no believers, and you will just be alone for the rest of time."

Valentine flinched, and Pitch once again laughed. "You want to be believed in, don't you?"

She didn't answer, but the answer was clearly written on her face. "Let me show you something that will ease your mind a bit." He gestured her to come over, and she hesitantly did. Once close enough, he showed an image in his nightmare sand of Jack and Bunny at this moment, and with the help of a Fearling that was near them, was able to project sound this time.

The two were waving bye to Sophie and Jamie, and they walked on the streets a bit, looking around. "'Ey mate, where did Valentine run off to?" Bunny asked, his voice not sounding concerned at all. Jack simply shrugged and smirked. "I don't care really."

"How much longer are you going to pretend to be friends with her?"

"Hah, not much longer that's for sure! She's so weird and annoying." The two laughed, and the image disappeared, Valentine not moving because she felt like her heart had just broken in many pieces.

"I'm sorry dear." Pitch said, faking sympathy in his voice and looking sad. "You had to know sometime. Those Guardians are awful, and only care about themselves. Any other Spirits, well, they just don't really care about them. They are only pretending to be your friends out of pity."

She couldn't speak, and she didn't want to believe what she was just shown. Jack… He didn't really care about her. Even after all the two had been through, he thought she was annoying and weird..

Pitch put a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up at him. "If you join me dear, we can get them to regret saying such harmful things, and you will finally be believed in." Her eyes widened slightly at the thought of someone finally believing in her.

"In me…?"

"Yes! Of course my dear! We can make them all regret ever doubting you! We can spread fear to the whole world, and they will come crawling on their knees begging for forgiveness and mercy! Join me, and you will finally be believed in, and have as much power as you'd like."

Valentine was silent for a few moments, before looking down and shutting her eyes. "I… I want to go and confront them first. See if it is real. I'm sorry, I cannot take up your offer at the moment…

Pitch pretended to be heartbroken, but really, deep down he knew she would somehow come back, and agree to join. "My offer will still stand once you come back, just try not to get hurt by them too much. I owe much to you for setting me free dear." And with that, he disappeared in the shadows, leaving Valentine all alone.

Slowly, she flew out the way she came, and headed back for Jamie's, hoping they would still be there. A realization suddenly hit her. Valentine had set Pitch Black free. He was free! "Oh no!" She said, and quickly flew there as fast as she could.


	6. Accidents

The two sat on top of the Burnett's roof, having already said goodbye to Sophie and Jamie. Bunny pinky promised Sophie to visit again soon as well. Jack sighed and stood up, and began pacing back and forth.

"'Ey mate, did she say where she was goin'?" Bunny asked, noticing Jack's irritability very well, and how concerned he was for Valentine. He shook his head, and rested his staff on his shoulder, his other hand in his hoodie pocket. "Just that she would be right back, but it's been almost an hour now." His voice also gave off hits of being concerned, and Jack was not one to wait around and do nothing.

Bunny chuckled a bit, shaking his head. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you got feelin's for 'er!" He then noticed Jack started to act weird, even more weird than he was before he had made the comment. He was silent for a second, when he finally said, "Do ya have feelin's for 'er?"

Jack didn't say anything and ignored him, which made Bunny a bit irritated that he was being ignored. "Jus' say ya don't wanna answer, instead of ignorin' me!" His voice had more anger in it than he though, and Jack stopped pacing, his back facing Bunny. "I'm going to go look for her."

"Whoa whoa mate, relax! She'll be here soon! It's best ta stay put than separate more."

Jack thought for a minute, then nodded. Bunny had a point, it would be rather dumb to go out and find her, when he didn't even know where she was. "You're right…" He sighed heavily, and sat back down beside Bunnymund, running his hands though his hair again.

"Now, will ya answer my question?"

They sat in silence for a few moments, before Jack sighed once again. "I don't know… All I know, is that when I met her, I felt like I knew her from somewhere, and these feelings just started inside me. Every time we're close, my heart starts racing and my face gets all red. I worry about her when I'm not with her, and she is almost always on my mind! It's weird…"

Bunny grinned, happy he was finally able to get an answer from the stubborn winter spirit. "Well mate, I'd say ya are in love." The two went silent again, just waiting.

After ten more minutes of waiting, Valentine finally appeared, looking worried and scared. Jack frowned at this, wondering what was wrong with her. "Valentine, everything okay?"

"Jack! I accidently set Pitch free!" She said rather franticly, and once it came out, Bunny glared at her.

"You did what?" He said, his voice on edge a bit. Jack didn't know how to react, and just looked at her wide eyed.

"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"

"Didn't mean to?! What does that mean?!"

"Jack!" Valentine turned to him, a pleading look in her eyes. "Jack, please. I'm sorry."

He shook his head a bit, and Valentine moved back. "You… You didn't…." He whispered, and Valentine tried apologizing again. "Please, Jack!" Sandy and Tooth then flew down to them, they were on their way to the pond, when they saw the three like this.

"What's going on?" Tooth asked, concerned. "She freed Pitch Black!" Bunny exclaimed, pointing at Valentine. "I-It was an accident!" She quickly shouted, but there was no proof. There was a long moment of silence, when Sandy indicated that they should head to the North Pole and sort things out there. The four Guardians went ahead of her, and tears started running down her face. She knew they would take the tunnels used by Bunnymund, so Valentine decided to fly there alone, her tears stinging cold as they ran down.

North looked a bit like his old self when they returned, guessing getting rid of some of the Fearlings had helped. While the other Guardians reported what happened with Valentine and Pitch and tried figuring out what to do, Jack paid no attention at all to the conversation. He was too lost in thought to think about it anymore.

Jack didn't even notice that the ground had trembled slightly and there were crashes and other noises coming from the doors in the workshop. "Jack!" North called, and it woke Jack out of his daze. "Huh? What's going on?" He said, clearly lost as to what everyone was worried about. North walked over to the doors, and opened them. Nightmare sand flew all over the place, crushing toys and throwing any yetis that got close to the source of what was creating this.

"Chto , chert voz'mi, zdes' proiskhodit?!" North yelled, and the Guardians instantly headed for whatever was causing this chaos. It was the little girl Jack had met earlier that Valentine wanted to take home, Lina. It took him a while to realize this, and shake his head in disbelief. Did his best friend betray them?

"JACK!" Tooth yelled, which knock him out of his daze and was able to move before getting swatted by nightmare sand. The little girl laughed at their attempts to strike her, and her appearance gave away that she looked exactly like Pitch now that she wasn't disguised as a young girl anymore. "You're attempts are weak." She said in between giggles.

Finally, Jack was able to get a clean shot at the girl and shoot bolts of ice at her, which didn't stop her much. "Aww, playtimes over." Instantly as she had come, the girl disappeared into shadows, and what was left of the workshop was a mess. "Months of hard work, ruined…" North said, falling to his knees. "Christmas is ruined…"

Without Christmas, everyone knew their powers would decrease instantly and greatly. They gathered around North, trying to think of ideas to fix this, well all except Jack. He stayed away, unable to move. "Mate?" Bunny said, looking over at him, who started to walk away. Jack stopped, and turned his head to them slightly, and said, "I'm going to find her." His voice with so much hurt and hatred, that none could believe it was Jack who was talking at the moment. The winter spirit walked to the entrance, and left, taking up into the air and, using the wind, flew towards Valentine, who wasn't very far.

Her eyes were foggy and clouded with tears, so much that she didn't see the flash of blue lightning that came at her and hit her, knocking her out of the sky. Valentine landed with a loud thud, screaming in pain. Her wings had been frozen, and she looked around. Quickly, she wiped her eyes to try to see better, but the pole was in the middle of a blizzard, so It did not help much.

There was a kick at her back which made her fall, shouting again and falling to the snow. She turned to see Jack, who looked more angry than she had ever seen him. "J-Jack!" She choked out, but Jack just shouted at her, telling her to shut up. "That girl, Lina! She was a minion of Pitch Black, and you brought her to the workshop!"

Valentine looked at him with disbelief and confusion, weakly standing up. "What are you talking about? I found her! She was lost, and I wanted to help her!"

"Well, did it never cross your mind that maybe she looked a little like him?!"

"How was I supposed to know Jack?! I didn't know what Pitch looked like till today!"

"When you freed him! Do you know what kind of destruction he will cause?! Do you know how much power the Guardians will lose now that Christmas is ruined?!"

"So, everything is now my fault right?! When all I wanted to do was help a little girl!"

Angry tears were streaming down her face now, and she didn't care. She was much too sad, hurt and angry to care about what she looked like right now. "While I'm here with absolutely no believers, no powers, you are more concerned about your own ass and losing a few!"

"A few! No, there will be more than just a few, Valentine! Everything will now disappear, and it's all your fault!"

There was silence except for the wind howling around them, and their heavy breathing. "He was right. You don't care. You never cared for anyone but yourselves." Valentine said, before the ice on her wings broke, and she took into the air as fast as a bullet, and flew in the opposite direction of the North Pole. Jack didn't know if he should go after her, or head back to the Pole. Instead, he screamed out in anger, and fell to his knees in the snow, some tears escaping his eyes now.

"Pitch was right! None of them care!" Valentine thought to herself, as she headed for the hole leading to Pitch's lair. Once there, she dropped down in it and looked around frantically for Pitch.

"Pitch! You were right! They don't care at all!" She shouted, and fell to her knees in the lair, crying heavily. The tall man appeared out of the shadows, and knelt down in front of Valentine. "Did I not warn you that you might get hurt?" He said, and she nodded.

Pitch helped her stand up, and Valentine wiped away her tears. She was silent for a while, before finally saying, "I want to join you and fear." Pitch smiled, and nodded. "I knew you'd come around to see the truth my dear."

"I want to prove to them that I can be powerful as well…."

He chuckled and nodded. "Don't worry dear, we will show them that fear is stronger than the lies they make the kids believe. Now, trust me." He said, and backed away from Valentine a bit, who nodded.

"You'll feel a bit pain, but it'll go away with seconds." Before she could react and ask what he meant, an arrow made of nightmare sand hit her, and started to spread through her. Valentine looked at him, fear and confusion in her eyes, before falling to her knees in the pain.

After a few seconds, her hair started to change into a grey colour and her skin lost its rose look to it, now just making it pale. Valentine took a second, and looked at her hands, and then her hair. She looked up at Pitch, and her ruby red eyes were now a deep crimson. "What did you do?"

"I gave you power and the ability to spread fear."

"Fear…" She repeated, and stood up. "So much power…" Pitch laughed a bit, and Valentine finally believed that fear was stronger than hope, wonder or dreams.

"They'll think twice now." She said, as she looked at her hands, amazed by the power the raced in her.


	7. Cold and Dark

Due to Christmas being such a huge, important and very time consuming holiday, each Guardian put enormous amounts of effort into trying to help make some of the more simpler toys as to get enough for the children. The presents that were already wrapped and out of the workshop were unharmed, but there was still a lot to be done, since it was only a few weeks away.

Jack, no matter how hard he tried, could not get Valentine out of his mind, and would often run into something or other, and wasn't his normal self. Everyone, even the yetis and the elves, could notice this very easily, but decided it was something the two needed to work out on their own. No one had seen the pink haired girl, though, since the fight they had, not even some of the lesser immortals had seen her, which just made Jack worry even more.

What if she was in danger? Or hurt? Or something horrible happened? Many other thoughts constantly flooded his mind, and one of the other Guardians would have to tell him to go because of how distracted he was at the moment.

North pulled Jack aside into the Globe Room, where there was no one else in the room, and sighed. "Jackson, you seem distracted…" Jack ran a hand through his snow white hair, and leaned on one of the huge pillars. The winter spirit nodded, looking off to the side. "It is because of Val, is it not?" Jack took a while to reply, but nodded and simply said a rather low "Yeah…"

After a few moments of silence, North smiled and laughed a bit, which got Jack's attention to look at him confused. "Go out for a while, Jack. We can manage." It took a while for Jack to process what the older man hand said to him, but once he did, he shook his head a bit. "Are you sure, North? There's a lot to be done, and Christmas is soon-"

"And we will manage." He put a large hand on Jack's shoulder, grinning ear to ear. "You care for Val greatly. Go blow off steam, then find her." It took a moment, but Jack smiled slightly and nodded. North chuckled and nodded a bit, and walked back out into the workshop to continue trying to restore Christmas if even a bit. Jack smiled a bit more, hoping that he could try to finally go find Valentine and talk to her.

He flew to Burgess, and landed at his pond, suddenly having the realization that he had no clue where to look for her at all. No immortals have seen her since the fight they had, it was as if she disappeared. Jack began to panic a bit. What if she did end up fading away? He heard that's what happened to most immortals when they see no more use in staying like they are, and they just fade away.

"Jack?" Came a voice from behind him, and he turned around so fast, not noticing the voice too much at first, in hopes it was Valentine. It wasn't. Flame stood a little ways away from him, the snow under her and snowflakes around her melting away a bit. His expression noticeably dropped, and he shook his head slightly, turning around a bit. "Oh, it's just you. Hi."

Flame frowned a bit, and walked over to him, but didn't get within arm's length. "Good to see you too… What's the matter?" The winter spirit sighed, and took a few moments to talk. "Nothing, it's just…. I haven't seen Valentine in about a month, and I'm worried…" The girl shook her head slightly, knowing just were Cupid was, but wasn't going to tell him about it. "Well, you know, I saw her a while back, b-"

"Where?!" He shouted, turning around and looking hopeful. He didn't even care that the heat coming from her started to make him feel uncomfortable and even hurt a bit.

She jumped back a bit, not expecting him to have reacted like that, but smiled a bit apologetically. "I'm sorry, but it was brief, and she looked so miserable. I forget where I saw her, or where she is now." His expression had dropped less than midsentence, and he sighed. It seemed like the girl has really disappeared out of existence. Flame saw how hurt he was, and wanted to hug him tightly, but knew she couldn't. He was snow and she was ice, so it would hurt both of them even with their powers suppressed as much as possible.

Flame sighed, while Jack stared at the ground. "Jack, I'm so sorry… Give it some more time. She was crying so hard when I saw her, and looked out of it…" His fists clenched, and he closed his eyes tightly, remembering that he was the one who had hurt her so badly. When he finally had realized what he had done, he regretted it instantly.

He hadn't meant to yell at her so much, or hurt her, he was just so angry and scared at that moment, so his mind was so clouded. It reminded him of the time when the other four thought he had betrayed them, and remembered the hurt he felt and everything.

"Flame," he said, his voice low and just as full of hurt and regret. She looked at him, and said, "Yes?"

"If you see Valentine… Can you tell her to come find me, and that… I'm sorry?"

It took her a while to reply, but agreed to do so for him. After that, she told him goodbye, and left in a burst of flames.

Jack put up his hood, and walked over to the frozen surface of the pond, creating small frost patterns on it, with his other hand not holding his staff in his hood pocket. "Ah, I really messed up this time." The boy said to himself, sighing.

He then heard someone walking in the snow over to the pond, but didn't bother to see who it was. It didn't really matter to him, but the person greeted Jack, which made him finally look up. At the ponds edge was Jamie, smiling a bit. "You alright?" The teen asked the spirit, noticing he wasn't acting himself.

Jack nodded slightly, but shook his head. Jamie was one of his closest friends, he could trust Jamie, and he really needed to let it out. He skated over to the teen and sat down on a log, taking off his hood with a sigh. Jamie dusted off some snow off the log and sat next to the winter spirit.

"So, what's going on? Lately, everyone I know has been mean to each other." Jack looked up with a confused look on his face, and Jamie looked confused and worried too. "Where have you been? Longtime friends are fighting, couples are arguing and breaking up, even Pippa is being mean a bit, but I can tell she is trying not to." Jack shook his head, racking his brain for an answer. "Well, something happened at the North Pole, and so Christmas might not come,-"

"Wait, what?! What happened?!" Jamie was standing up now, surprised and worried and confused. Again, Jack took a moment to come up with an answer.

"It's Pitch. He created a girl made out of the nightmare sand, and tricked us. She…. She broke most of the toys, and everyone is rushing to make as many of the simpler toys as possible."

"How did the girl get in?"

Jack couldn't answer for what seemed like forever. He just couldn't bring himself to say it, but Jamie was waiting for him to tell him, curious. "You know who Cupid is, right?"

Jamie nodded, confused as to what it had to do with anything. The brown haired teen sat back down on the log.

"Well, she is real, and-"

"She? I thought Cupid was a male?"

"No, that's just what you have been made out to believe her as, for whatever reason. Anyways, that's beside the point. Me and her are very close friends. She was the first person I met when I became the spirit of Winter, and for some reason, I feel like I've known her longer."

Jack went on and told her about how she had brought Lina to the workshop, not knowing she was working for Pitch, and the girl had destroyed everything. Jamie then asked what happened after all of that, and Jack had to explain how he went out and found her, and the two argued, and hadn't seen her since.

After his story, Jamie nodded a bit, the two silent for a while. "Seems like everywhere is going downhill." Jack chuckled a bit at this, and agreed. "Well, you should go and find her."

"I would, if I knew where to find her. None of the other Immortals have seen her either, it's like she disappeared from existence." Jamie sighed, trying to think of how he could help his friend, when Jack suddenly said, "I godda tell you something."

Jamie turned to him, a questioning look on his face.

"Cupid has already seen you, and even has stood next to you a few times. She was even with me and Bunny in your room that one night."

Jamie burst out laughing, believing what Jack had said was true. He took a moment, but Jack smiled and started laughing as well. "Why didn't you introduce me to her? I would love to meet the culprit who made me fall for my best friend!"

"Well, she doesn't have any powers that would help you believe, and since you're past that point of age, I figured it would have been difficult to."

"When you see her and the two of you make up, have her come and meet me and Sophie. I know Soph would love to meet her more than anything."

Jack nodded, and the two friends were silent for a while. "So, what are ya going to do?" Jamie finally asked, looking out at the frozen pond. "Possibly go and find her. I feel really bad about it all."

"Frost is in love! Frost is in love!" Jamie explained at the top of his lungs, sounding like his younger self again. Jack threw a snowball at him, telling him to shut up. They couldn't stop laughing for a while.

Jack stood up once he had calmed down, and nodded. "Yeah, I'll go find her now, and I'll apologize. Thanks, Jamie, you always help me feel better."

"You're welcome." He said, standing up as well. Jack took off to the air, shouting to Jamie to tell Sophie he said hello, and started looking in all the places he would think he'd find her.

After hours of looking, Jack was about to give up. He was in London at the time, one of Valentine's favorite places to be besides Burgess, and walked around on the roofs. He looked up at the huge clock, which the people here called Big Ben, and it started to chime midnight. He turned his gaze to the moon. "Where is she?" He asked, hoping the moon would answer. "You know where she is, I bet, so please just tell me!" He practically shouted, when he then saw a shadow fly onto the top of Big Ben.

"Who's that?" He said, to himself this time, and watched for a bit. The figure didn't move, and stood there, looking at the moon. Jack took up into the air, and quietly went to the figure, whose back was turned to him.

The way this person looked, he could tell, it had to be her. Jack smiled a bit, hopeful. "V-Valentine?" He said hesitantly, and she froze, not turning around. He couldn't tell if it was just the moons light, or something else, but he noticed that her skin looked pale, and her hair seemed grey, not like it's normal bright pink colour.

"Oh, Jack." She said without turning around, and lowered her head to look at the ground below her. "I've been looking everywhere for you! Where have you been?" Valentine shook her head, and laughed a bit. His smile faded, wondering why she was acting so weird.

"Are you alright?"

Valentine nodded, and turned around, and now he was certain her hair was a light grey, and even her eyes where a deep crimson colour, like blood. "I'm fine." She smiled, and a sword made out of nightmare sand appeared in her hand.

"W… What?" He gripped his staff tightly, staring at the person who looked like his best friend, but wasn't. "I've joined fear, and it is much better than being with you all, when you cast me aside." No words were able to come out of the winter spirits mouth, and refused to believe any of it was real, but couldn't doubt that it was.

"N-no…" He mumbled, looking down. Any sign of happiness to being able to finally see her had left, and he was left with confusion and disbelief. "You're not real!" He shouted, and ice flew at her, which she easily jumped out of the way of, and her wings opened up, no longer pure white, but were now pure black.

Her smile faded, and Fearlings began to form around her, their golden eyes glowing slightly. "It's hard to believe, but I am real. Jack," she held out her hand to him, the one that wasn't holding the sword, "come and join Pitch and I. The power here is so much greater, and the fear has already given me believers." Jack stared at her, not believing any of this. "What goes better than-"

"Than cold and dark…" Jack finished off, turning away now, unable to look at her. "No, Valentine. No. I'm a Guardian, and you know that. This isn't you. This isn't real." He said, and Valentine lowered her hand slowly. "Fine then. Then let me warn you, Jack Frost. Do not get in my way, or I will not hesitate to destroy everything you hold dear to you."

A Fearling charged at Jack, who froze it instantly before it hit him, and it fell to the ground. Jack looked back up, to see that Valentine and the swarm of Fearlings were no longer there.

"I promise," He mumbled, turning to the moon, "I will get her back. Even if it costs me my immortal life…" With that, Jack made his way to the North Pole, to report about the events.

"You told me he would join!" Valentine shouted, and Pitch just let the girl blow off steam. Flame watched from the corner with Lina next to her, amused by the girls fit of rage. "You said, he would join if I approached him! He just threw me away again!"

"Control yourself, my dear." Pitch said calmly, as an image beside him formed of Jack gliding on the wind to the North Pole. "Good things come to those who wait, and we must be patient with this." Valentine sighed, and tried calming down, even though she still felt hurt and strangely lonely, even though there were people near her.

It was weird, she felt so alone, even though she wasn't. This all felt so wrong. Lina's eyes glinted with light for a second, but disappeared before anyone noticed. She began to wonder what was going on around her, without Pitch noticing his puppets strange behavior.


	8. Belief

A brown haired girl flew through the air emotionlessly. A storm was going on all around her, the winds howling all around her angrily and the rain flying harshly, stinging anyone who'd walk through it with its icy coldness. Of course, this girl wasn't. She controlled all storms, the rain in it, the thunder and lightning and the wind. As well as that, she could also create rainbows if there was just enough water left in the atmosphere.

Her eyes ranged in colours of her natural eye colour, brown, as well as blues and yellows. This naturally happened when creating storms, and was nothing normal.

She stopped and looked around at the storm she was creating, glad that no one had interfered with it yet, especially that winter spirit. Just thinking about him made her rage with anger, as a sudden bold of thunder crashed to the ground and the roll of thunder after it.

The girl felt a sudden pull inside her, one that she was familiar with, and she listened to that feeling and did what it told her to do. She faced the lady before her, whose body seemed blurred and made out of mists and clouds. Only the woman's face was recognizable, as well as her long black hair.

"Yes, mistress?" The girl asked, bowing slightly and adjusting her grip on her staff.

She took a moment to answer, sighing before speaking. "Spirit of Storms, I know how much you despise the Spirit of Winter…." Already, the girl did not like where this was going, and looked down slightly.

"If he comes to you, asking for your assistance, you do not hesitate to except, do you understand?"

There was a moment of silence between them except for the storms winds howling around the two immortals. "Yes, mistress…" The girl finally said, and the women's lips formed a smile. "Thank you." And the women vanished as soon as she had appeared.

Thunder once again crashed to the ground and the thunder rolled after it.

"Frost."

She said, anger rising in her voice. "Why the bloody hell should I help him?!" She shouted, and the storm picked up.

Valentine flew to a tree, looking over the house. She was debating if this was the right thing to do, something she hadn't done since joining Pitch Black. She just couldn't bring herself to do this, at least not just yet.

"Hesitating, my dear?"

She didn't bother turn around, because she knew the voice.

"No. Just thinking."

"I know what you are thinking, if this is right or not. Well, remember about how broken you felt when Jack left you. The only person who really talked to you, and was your only friend. He threw that away because of a simple accident, now it's your turn to make him feel the way you did."

Pitch stood next to her, smiling widely which showed off his sharp and pointed teeth, one tooth missing because of the punch Tooth had given him before being sealed.

There was silence, as the now grey haired girl was in her mind still wondering if this was a good idea. She sighed, and looked at the house again.

"Okay."

Pitch disappeared, and it took Valentine a minute to fly over to the window and look in. The brown haired boy lay asleep in his bed, and she could see the yellow dream sand float above his head and showing his dreams that were in his mind.

She chuckled slightly at the sight of this, staring at the boy who had no clue she was there when ever him and Jack where outside having a good time without her, watching from a distance.

"Aw, so innocent, for someone who is almost an adult."

She walked slowly over to his bed, grinning slightly.

"Isn't it time for you to grow up?" Valentine commented, and carefully, she touched the image of the yellow dream sand.

Instantly, it was over taken by the black nightmare sand, and the boy turned restlessly in his sleep. Since it was such a small amount, she was able to control it, and give him the nightmare she wanted to give him.

Jack sighed, still making his way to the workshop. He had just recently reached the pole, and was debating if he should tell the others or not. It seemed like the best thing to go, but how would they react?

Would they want to seal her like Pitch?

Would they help safe her?

Would they call her a traitor, and never let her into the workshop, warren, or any of the other places again?

"Oh gees, Valentine…" He said to himself, running a hand through his snow white hair and sighed, his breath coming out in a mist, even though he was a spirit and the winter one at that.

"What have you gotten yourself into?"

There was a moment of silence from the boy, when he finally whispered the words, "I'm sorry." And wishing he was able to tell his best friend that…

Suddenly, a surge of unbearable pain coursed through his whole body, causing his deep blue eyes to widen and his free hand went to his chest and gripped his blue hoodie tightly, the other gripping his staff in the same fashion.

Breathing suddenly became harder to do, and everything hurt inside and outside of him. He wanted to scream, but couldn't.

Nothing would come out.

Another pain shot through him, and this time he did scream as loud as he could and shut his eyes tightly.

The winter spirit suddenly lost consciousness, and fell to the snowy ground, unable to stand the unbearable pain that went through him.

He lay motionless, except for his ragged breathing and a pained expression on his face.

A yellow light glowed near him, and dream sand floated down to him. Soon after, Sandy stood there looking at the young spirit with a worried expression on his own face. What had caused the boy to suddenly lose consciousness? The Sandman wondered to himself.

The sand formed underneath Jack, and lifted him up off the ground and into the air gently. Sandy sat next to the boy, and the dream cloud headed for the workshop, which Sandy had just left from before seeing Jack fall out of the sky.

"LIAR!" The girl screamed at the tall figure, her fists clenched. "You said he wouldn't hurt THAT MUCH!" Rage was running through the girl unable to stand this man at the second. Twice he had lied to her one way or another, and she did not like being lied to.

Pitch frowned slightly at the girl, and put his hand up to silence her.

"I said he'd fell pain, but not for very long. The pain caused him to become unconscious, which is what I meant for not very long."

Valentine didn't care about what he meant, but decided to back down anyways. Her fists continued to be clenched tightly, and would have drawn blood from her palm if she were mortal due to her nails digging into her pale flesh.

Once again, Flame and Lina watched from the side. Flame smiled slightly at the girls carelessness, and found this rather amusing.

"You crush the belief of a Guardians first believer, and unbearable pain will course through every part of their body, inside and out, until they can't take it anymore and eventually lose consciousness."

Pitch explained to the girl, who did not know this beforehand. She sighed, and relaxed a bit. Something in her kept telling her this was very wrong to do, and that she needed to stop before someone got hurt.

Valentine ignored this feeling.

There was silence throughout the lair, finally broken by Pitch's soft chuckling.

"Why are you so distressed? Do you not want him to feel the pain that you felt? Being alone? Ignored? Unwanted? Don't you want him to feel that pain and regret ever yelling at you, and calling you useless?"

These words echoed in Valentine's mind, and she didn't know how to answer.

"Besides…" She turned around and faced the man, something showing in her eyes no one in the room could make out to be.

"Don't you want these? Your memories?" He said, holding out a golden tube to the girl, which had a picture of her but with dirty blonde hair and emerald green eyes, and the image was smiling at her.

Valentine froze slightly, just staring at the tube. She seemed to have turned into a statue.

Pitch noticed this, and laughed, tucking it into his long coat and smiling at her.

"Be a good little nightmare girl, and you shall have these, deal?"

There was silence, until Valentine finally nodded, and said, "Deal."

He smiled. "Good." He hissed, and Valentine looked away, feeling defeated.

A week passed, before the winter spirit finally woke up. At first, he was completely confused as to where he was. This certainly wasn't outside the North Pole, where he remembered passing out into the snow.

His head suddenly throbbed, and he held it with his hands, groaning in pain. Everything ached in him, as if he just ran a marathon or more.

"You're awake." Came a female voice from beside him, but couldn't make it out very well. His head throbbed too much.

"Valentine?" He said weakly, and looked up.

Instead of seeing the pink he so much hoped to see, it was instead met by a girl who wore feathers of green, blue and yellow, and her eyes were a sparkling violet.

Tooth smiled worriedly, and shook her head. "No. She's gone missing, remember?"

Jack fell back onto the bed with a groan, disappointment filling all over him, and then suddenly remembered what happened to his best friend, shaking his head lightly.

"No… I know where she is Tooth.."

Her wings fluttered a bit in happiness, and she smiled more. "Where?" She said hopeful, but it took Jack a while to reply back to her, weighing his chances with just telling Tooth.

"Promise not to say anything to the others. At least, not yet."

She looked at him odd, her smile fading. "Wh-"

"Just promise, okay?" He didn't feel like explaining himself until after he told Tooth were the younger girl had gone too. After a while, Tooth finally nodded and promised not to tell. It took a lot of courage for him to finally speak.

"She sided with Pitch…"

He heard Tooth gasp, and she brought her hands to her mouth, unable to believe what she heard. "N-no…"

"It's the truth, but I think she is being controlled or blackmailed or something… She wouldn't do that on her own will I bet..."

There was silence between the two Guardians, before Tooth finally sighed and stood up, and walked over to the door. "You're in North's Workshop by the way. Sandy found you, and brought you here. You should rest a bit longer then come out when you feel better." She smiled over her shoulder to him, before opening the door and leaving, gently shutting it behind her.

Jack then began to wonder if telling her was really a good idea or not, but finally decided it was possibly a good one, since he trusted she wouldn't tell anyone. After a while, he fell asleep once again after suddenly becoming tired and only slept for about an hour.

His dream was of Valentine, before she had sided with Pitch, and when he woke up, he noticed he had been crying slightly in his sleep…


	9. Christmas

Jack sat up from the bed after falling asleep, his legs hanging over the edge. Everything still ached, but not as badly as they did a while ago. His head also didn't throb as much.

He stood up, and grabbed his staff from the wall near the bed, and walked out of the room. Just like when he left, the workshop was insanely busy. The winter spirit had lost track of time and day, so he went up to one of the yetis, and asked about the date. All he got out of gibberish, but Jack had been around for quite a while that he understood a bit of it.

It finally hit him what the date was, his eyes going wide with surprise. It was Christmas Eve, and they didn't have enough presents for all the children of the world.

Sandy made his way over to the boy through the crowd, and a symbol of images appeared on his head before pointing over to the door to the globe room, and Jack understood.

Instead of making is way through the crowd, he took into the air and flew over them, Sandy following close to him, until they finally reached the door and Jack pushed it open, landing on the ground and Sandy entering behind him.

Inside the room already, were Bunny, North and Tooth, who looked at him and smiled half heartedly, clearly remembering what he had told her earlier. And by the looks on the others faces, she didn't tell like she had promised.

North looked up at them grimly, shaking his head then going back to pacing. Bunny looked annoyed and ready to break something, and Tooth looked uneven. Now that he realized it, Sandy even looked a bit uneven and worried.

"What's going on?" Jack asked, the doors closing behind him and walking into the room. No one said anything, but they gestured to the Globe of Belief. This was when Jack finally realized that lights were missing.

He floated over to the huge globe, looking at it with disbelief, that so many lights were already out. Jack looked back over at his fellow Guardians, shaking his head. "This is some mistake, right?"

No one answered him, and he landed back on the ground, clutching his staff tightly. "This can't be right! There's some mistake!"

"There is no mistake, Jackson." North finally said, his voice sounding just as weak as he looked. This made Jack noticed another thing that he missed upon entering the room, was that they all looked weaker than normal, as if the belief was being sapped right out of them all, and he realized he felt weak to an extent as well.

"Christmas is tonight, Jack. We don't have presents for all children. We will lose more belief."

"Jamie, can you help me with this please?" Sophie asked, looking up at her older brother with a pleading look. She had been working on a snowman, and no matter what wouldn't lift the head up on top of the second ball of snow for the body.

The older boy laughed slightly and nodded, walking over to were the snow was and picked up what she had made for the head, gently putting it on and then packing a bit more snow around it with Sophie to make it stay put.

Her smile was wide, as she hugged him around the waist and said thanks before grabbing a few rocks and sticks to finish it up. Jamie watched with amusement, happy to see his younger sister so energetic.

"Do you think Santa will come tonight?" She asked, bouncing up and down happily. This made the boy frown slightly, and shook his head. "Now Soph, you know Santa isn't real. You're too old to believe in him."

The blond haired girl frowned and pouted, but said no more. Jamie sighed, and walked over to the house and leaned on the side, keeping his younger sister within sight.

"All this time," He thought to himself, looking up at the grey sky that made snowflakes fall gracefully to the ground, the wind cold and blowing slightly to make the snowflakes dance around a bit more, "I can't believe it was just my imagination. There's no Jack Frost, or Easter Bunny."

Jamie sighed and looked at the ground, rubbing the back of his neck.

"But, I can't help but feel as if….."

Flame walked around in what used to be her hometown, where it was summertime in this part of the world. No one could see her, and it didn't bother her too much. Over six hundred years of this, and she had gone to not caring too much.

Beside her, the girl made from nightmare sand walked beside her, her gaze lifeless and dull, as wither her expression. People passed by, and even though she was invisible, Flame went around whoever got too close to her, not wanting to have that uneasy feeling of feeling breathless whenever a mortal passed through a spirit.

"Miss?"

Flame looked around at the sudden voice, and then looked down at the black haired girl, smiling slightly. "What is it?"

"Why are you Flame?"

She blinked at this, not knowing what she meant before it finally sunk in, and smiled slightly. "Is this Pitch or Lina addressing me?"

There was a moment of silence, the girl looking as if she was thinking of an answer, when she finally replied, "Lina."

Flame chuckled and shook her head slightly. "Looks like the puppet is forming a mind of her own. A body of sand, a soul and flame and a mind and life of love."

Lina looked up at the girl made out of fire slightly, some life glinting in her eyes before disappearing. There was a few moments of silence before Flame finally started to speak.

"Well, I used to have black hair, and green eyes. I lived with my parents and a little sisters. No one liked me, and called me a witch for my hair and eye colour. One day," She looked down at Lina briefly before sighing.

"One day, my home caught on fire due to these kids setting it on fire, thinking I was in there. Instead, it was my younger sister, and I quickly ran in and saved her. She wasn't injured thankfully, and got out alive. I, on the other hand, did not. The flames started to burn at my clothing and hair and body, until burning wood from the ceiling fell on my, and crushed me."

Again another moment of silence, this time Lina looking up at Flame, her look still blank but in her eyes, it showed that she was curious and wanted to know more about her.

"Then, I finally woke up, my mind fuzzy. I realized I was on fire, and tried putting it out when I realized it wasn't hurting me. I looked at the moon, and it told me who I was. Flame Inferno, Spirit of Fires."

"Where you not sad?"

"Of course I was after recovering my memory, but then I noticed something. I used to watch over a girl who particularly drew me into her, and would help her whenever she was being bullied. Once getting back my memories, I realized that the girl I watched over till her death was none other than my sister. I was able to see her progress in life, and die happy and married."

Lina nodded, taking in the information that was given to her. "Was I someone before being Lina?"

Flame jumped at her question, blinking and not knowing how to answer this. "No." She answered slowly, recovering from the surprise. "You where no one before being who you are now, except for just sand."

This didn't seem to affect the girl that much, as she just nodded in understanding. Flame sighed, feeling bad for having to go and tell her that. Then she realized, why was she feeling so bad? This girl was nothing more than a puppet.

Right?

The yetis loaded the sleigh, and worked on last minute preparations for the machine. Most of the gifts would just be delivered through the snow globes, but North always made sure to deliver to the extra special children.

This year, though, there were enough presents to fit on the sleigh due to there not being much. The Guardians had to talk over where to deliver the presents to, since there was so little, and tried to make it to get as many as possible.

They agreed on going to the more populated areas, mainly focusing on there and try to keep as many believers as possible.

Jack walked around, looking at the sleigh while it was being worked on. North was to leave any minute now, the others were to go make sure their own places were safe and continue on with their work, all to meet at the North Pole after North got back.

The Winter spirit was going to see North out, to make sure there would be no issues with Fearlings. At that moment, Jack heard Tooth's voice echo in the halls behind him.

"North, are you sure you can do this without the rest of us? I mean, who knows how many Fearlings may attack!" Her voice was full of worry, as she flew next to the big Russian man, who just simply laughed slightly. "Tooth, its fine! Jack will be with me. We have to keep rest of children's beliefs up." He gave the hummingbird fairy a wide smile, as he climbed into the front of the sleigh.

Jack hopped onto the wing of the machine, and looked at the three guardians that would stay behind. Bunny had his arms crossed over his chest, trying to look calm and collected, but Jack could just tell he was just as worried as the other two, who showed it on their faces.

He tried giving them a reassuring smile, and said, "Don't worry guys, we'll be back before you know it."

"Oh, just be careful! If anything happens, come back at once!" Tooth said worriedly, causing North and Jack to laugh slightly, both giving her a slight nod.

"Are we ready?!" North called, taking the reins for the reindeer tightly in his big hands. A yeti next to him, still trying to work on something, shook his head urgently, grumbling some things.

"Alright, lets go!" North exclaimed, and with a crack of the reins and a cry from the Russian, the reindeer took off, Tooth and Sandy waving the two of them off, and Bunny just grinning slightly.

The two spirits took off through an icy tunnel, dodging icicles on the ground and whatever blocked the sleighs path. Despite the circumstances, the two daredevils smiled and shouted in joy from the ride, the tunnel echoing their voices and the pounding of the reindeer hooves.

Finally, the sleigh reached the wooden ramp at the end of the tunnel and took off into the air. Jack gave another whoop in joy, looking around. Riding in the sleigh never got old to him, which made the Russian laugh.

"Alright!" North exclaimed, giving the reins a little whip as he took out one of his snow globes, swirling it around slightly. "I say, Asia!"

In a swift and powerful motion, he threw the globe ahead of them, which opened up a portal. In an instant, the two and the sleigh were through the portal and into the destination North said: Asia.

Thus began the gift delivering.


End file.
